NYTimes.com: Inmates Help States Fill Budget Gaps

No inmates have escaped, and sometimes, Mr. Mullahey said, their criminal backgrounds are assets. Inmates with drug offenses already know how to grow plants, and when a university employee lost the key to a file cabinet, a prisoner with lock-picking experience helped him break in.

I wonder what other inmate skills have yet to be tapped. Perhaps a ponzi scheme to save our economy?

Seriously, it seems to make sense to have prisoners as cheap labor for governments, but how does this help by taking jobs that would have gone to the private sector?